Polygamy is a hot legal topic in American society. This is due in large part to the Warren Jeffs trial currently being argued in St. George, Utah. Jeffs is the leader of the largest polygamist religious sect in the United States and charged with multiple counts of rape and rape as an accomplice.

The reason he is charged with these crimes is because, as the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, he had the absolute power to approve or deny all the marriages within his community. Jeffs is on trial because he forced a 14-year-old girl to marry her first cousin, who was nearly 20. She didn’t want to and protested, but was ultimately forced into the marriage, and Utah is trying to find out if Jeffs is guilty of any criminal conduct.

He is charged as an accomplice to rape because he used political and religious power to force an unwilling, underage girl into marriage and subsequent unwilling sex with her husband. The sticky issue here is what kind of a precedent would it set if Jeffs gets convicted.

According to experts interviewed by NPR reporter Wade Goodwyn, if Jeffs is found guilty, the precedent it sets on the legality of spiritual leaders and guidance professionals who council people to get married might change. For instance, if a mental health professional counsels a couple to get married and have sex, that counselor might be guilty of the very same coercion upon which Utah is trying to convict Jeffs.

I think Jeffs is guilty of the charges. He used his power as leader of his community to ensnare unwilling, underage women into marriages because his beliefs say that if a man doesn’t have at least three wives, he has no hope of eternal salvation. If a religious leader or prophet is using brainwashing and coercion to force people to do things against their will, they should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

Although I don’t agree with plural marriage, I don’t think the U.S. can keep it illegal for long. We are on the threshold of a revolution in what we know to be the nuclear family – “traditional family values.” The debate about legalizing same-sex marriage is coming to head and soon this issue will have to be resolved. If same-sex marriage is legalized, we will have to address other types of non-traditional relationships as well. Polygamists in the U.S. are very organized – they will petition for legalization when they think they can win.

If legalized, non-traditional marriages and the people in them would cease to be a countercultural faction or a subculture, and, after a time, would be assimilated into “normal” American society. It will take compromises from both sides but legalization is the first step. And if it does happen, then people like Jeffs would have one less lever of power to allow him to brainwash and control people.

People like Jeffs lurk in the shadows and seedy crevasses of American society and prey on those who are willing to give him power over themselves and their families. But if legalized, alternative marriages would cease to be “different” and become subject to the normal rules and procedures that traditional marriage has in our society. We, as a nation, are going to face the subject of alternative and plural marriage sometime – why not do the logical and rational thing and let people live freely and safely how they please, as long as they don’t harm anyone else?